Editor's Introduction
Abstract
CandaceJones ecrets shape the relations of agencies to their stakeholders and publics, organizations to one another, and individuals to organizations. They Soften define what we do and how we do it. They are pervasive in our current public life, the discussion of policy implications, and central to orga- nizational strategy. Yet secrets are rarely studied by organizational scholars. Bok's (1984) seminal work on secrets set a conceptual foundation upon which three sets of scholars draw to illuminate various aspects of organiza- tional secrecy and in doing so suggest ways in which organizational schol- ars can think about and seek to study organizational secrets. Keane explores secrets as mechanisms of social inclusion and exclusion, which construct social and cognitive boundaries to protect organizational vulnerabilities and enable organizational control over members. Keane suggests that secrets are maintained through processes of identification and norms of loy- alty. Anand and Rosen highlight the ethical implications of secrecy by examining the interaction motives for maintaining secrets and who author- izes a secret. They suggest that when secrets are sanctioned solely by insid- ers, they are “more likely to fall over the ethical precipice.” Dufresne and Offstein, as former military intelligence officers, play the